Rozner: HOFer Williams basking in Cubs' WS glory

Billy Williams stood in the visitors dugout at Progressive Field and smiled.

For a few moments, he couldn't stop giggling long enough to answer a question.

Williams simply stared at the massive scoreboard that spanned the left-field bleachers.

It read: “WORLD SERIES 2016.”

He pointed to the logos on the field, the signs on the walls and the writing on the dugout.

“We're really here. This is really happening,” he shouted. “The Cubs are in the World Series.”

And he laughed rather loud.

Hey, why not?

The 1961 Rookie of the Year has been affiliated with the Cubs since 1956, minus a couple of years in Oakland at the end of his career, and he's seen more heartbreak than a Hall of Fame player should have ever seen.

As tough as anything he experienced was being dealt to the Athletics before the 1975 season, to a team coming off three consecutive World Series titles.

“That's the reason that I went there,” Williams said. “(Cubs GM) John Holland called me in the office and said, ‘We can make a trade to get you somewhere that you can win, or you can stay here if you want and go through another youth movement.'

“I said, ‘John, I don't want to do that. I want a pennant. I want to get to the World Series. I've done everything else.'

“Oakland owner Charlie Finley called me and said they wanted me to come out there for two years. And can you believe it? It was the same time Catfish Hunter left and went to New York. If we had him, I'd be wearing an Oakland World Series ring.”

Instead, the dynasty ended with a sweep in the 1975 ALCS at the hands of the Boston Red Sox.

“Reggie (Jackson) and Bill North, and my wife and me, we were eating dinner in Boston,” Williams remembers like it was yesterday. “And Reggie said, ‘This is for you. We won in '72, '73, '74, and we're gonna win it for you this year.'

“But we made so many errors in that series. Claudell Washington threw a ball away. We made errors all over the field in Boston. They took Carl Yastrzemski and put him in left and Cecil Cooper at first, and they wore the Oakland pitching out.

“It was bad timing for me.”

Williams really thought the Cubs were destined to win it all in 1969, a season that ended in infamy, and one Williams thinks of often.

“It really hurts, even to this day, because we had it right in our grasp,” Williams says. “A lot of people talk about how (manager) Leo (Durocher) played guys too much, but I don't think that's true.

“I always said that we didn't lose the pennant. The Mets won it. They had the pitching. When you got good pitching, like we have now, it makes all the difference. The Mets had the pitching that year. They had the pitching last year, too, and you saw what they did to us.

“You can't beat good pitching.”

But now the Cubs have finally made it to the big dance after 71 years, and Williams thinks frequently of his good friends recently departed.

“It's hard not think of Ron (Santo) and Ernie (Banks),” Williams said. “When that double play was made (to clinch the pennant), I stood up and threw my hands up in the air, and they're the first people I thought about.

“They gave their hearts to Chicago and to this team.”

No one more than Santo.

“We played together for so many years and we tried to bring this to Chicago, this World Series,” Williams said softly. “We wanted this so bad as players, but we just couldn't get there.

“That's one of the things I thought about, those guys not being here to enjoy this. They would have loved this so much.

“Ronnie lived and died with this team like no one I ever knew. Once he retired, and then he became a broadcaster, he became the biggest Cub fan.

“No player had more passion for the team or cared more about it than he did. He lived and died with the team as a player and later as a fan and broadcaster. It's hard to explain, but no one wanted to win more than he did.

“He showed it all the time. Some guys hold it in, but Ronnie let it out. He let it out on the field and he let it out as a broadcaster. And people love that. They like a guy who shows his emotions like that.”

Williams doesn't need anyone to tell him about failures past. He's lived through them all, but he's convinced this season is different.

“We got good pitching now, good catching, a great middle infield and prototype center fielder. That's the backbone of the club right there,” Williams said. “It's gonna happen this time. I'm gonna get the ring this time.”

And no doubt if it happens, he will take a moment to remember his pals who won't be here to share it.

Billy Williams is hoping that somewhere they're smiling, too.

brozner@dailyherald.com

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